GOVERNOR'S CALLS TO END WAR ON DRUGS COULD BECOME MAINSTREAM

Gov. Gary Johnson has taken a political drubbing for advocating an end to
the war on drugs from Democratic legislators and even many fellow Republicans.

But Johnson's comeback in public-opinion polls - after an initial slump
when he began talking about drugs last year - should help his cause, said
Katharine Huffman, director of the New Mexico Drug Policy Project.

Also, progressive drug initiatives nationwide might "increase the comfort
level of New Mexico legislators," she said, "that they're not striking out
in some radical, new direction, but instead are moving in the direction
that many other states are moving."

Five of seven drug-law proposals on states' Nov. 7 ballots met with voter
approval.

The initiatives include measures to legalize medical marijuana, to require
treatment - not incarceration - for nonviolent drug offenders and to change
civil asset-forfeiture laws.

"Things that politicians consider too hot to touch, when the public has the
opportunity to deal with it directly, they're perfectly willing to take it
on and to move forward," Huffman said.

Johnson says that narcotics use should be viewed as a public health issue
and that crime-and-order approaches have only amplified the social costs of
drug problems.

Johnson also thinks marijuana should be legal - an opinion that has made
him the butt of more than a few "what's-he-been-smoking" jokes.

The Legislature's political pulse on the issue will be critical in
determining if Johnson has any luck pushing drug-law reforms in the
legislative session that begins Jan. 16.

Since 1996, 17 of 19 proposed ballot initiatives and referenda across the
country have passed in favor of drug-policy reform, according to The
Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation.

In the ballot initiatives approved Nov. 7, Nevada and Colorado joined seven
other states, plus the District of Columbia, in making marijuana legal for
medical use.

Californians also approved Proposition 36, which requires treatment, not
jail, for drug possession or use.

Marijuana has been shown to relieve symptoms from cancer treatment and
multiple sclerosis.

Hawaii's medical-marijuana law will likely be a model for efforts next year
to revive New Mexico's dormant medical-marijuana program.

The New Mexico program was the first of its kind when passed by law in
1978, but it has not been funded since 1986.

Jacqueline Cooper, an Albuquerque-based public defender who is lobbying the
Legislature to lower penalties for drug possession and street-level sales,
said an addict arrested twice for selling single rocks of crack cocaine
ends up serving more prison time - a mandatory 18 years - than a person
convicted of second-degree murder.

"The war on drugs has distorted our reason," she said.